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Predator
Predator is a powerful melee tank. The most notable talent is Adaptive Armor as it gives you an armor buff every time you are hit, stacking up to +15 Armor. Adaptive Armor can be further upgraded with talents like Ballistic Foam and combined with Block Mastery, allowing Predator to tank even bosses and Ultralisks. Combined with the Phalanx skill and the Irradiate talent, it can give you the power you need early game to survive and kill enemies just by staying close to them. When playing Predator in a group you are responsible for protection of more squishy teammates. Positioning and timely switching aggro of enemies from teammates to you is crucial for success. Predator has one of the highest aggro priorities in the game, only behind Odins and Captain Smoker. It means you have to be extra careful when dealing with powerful enemies as Extremely Big Guns won't save you. If you can't directly tank an enemy or a group of enemies, you may often kite them in circles, while damaging enemies with Corona, Irradiate, help of Crap Patrol structures and units as well as teammates when playing in the group. You may also kite them to Captain Smoker, who who will take over tanking duties from you. Especially after you pick up the Defense Damage Artifact. But be careful - even though he's very powerful and tanky, strong enemies like ultralisks, bosses and Hive guardians deal a lot of damage to him. So you can't just let him handle everything. Predator has low point damage, but don't underestimate his area damage from Corona and Irradiate (especially with Toxic Waste perk). Good Predator's damage score can be easily comparable with most of other heroes. Perks Priority * Air Support (for high ground vision and damage while kiting enemies * Irradiate (for early game damage, otherwise prepare to grind for a long time until you get enough energy and armor) - in recent patches, this has been buffed. * Compartmentization (Lightweight Equipment) - Cooldown * Weaponsmith - weapon damage * Archeology, it helps getting talents earlier. * Depending on the game, perks: caxy or speedrun caxw, so predator can chose sun god mastery and unlock as fast as possible Useless Perks * Onslaught (Predator is a defensive hero, often kite so that other heroes can shoot. This perk disables all his defensive talents and make him useless) * Doomsday (Predator doesn't have scan and is a melee hero. He also has highest aggro in the game, so running closer to enemy base to scan will kill him. Also by late game, everyone should have enough money for nuke) * Mercenary (your role is to tank and divert attention, not to nuke) So-so perks * Helldiver (they'll most likely die to bosses when you're being chased. Also, you have so much defense that you can survive on your own) * Ironman (in harder modes, just don't die). However, when predator is the only tank in the game, iron man is a must as he'll kite, will not be delayed anymore. A game changer. Masteries Talents Vitality Kit MkI - Grants a flat bonus to maximum life Shield Kit - Grants a flat bonus to shields Supercharge - Greatly improves energy max and energy regeneration Learn Inspire - Allied forces fighting near you will become stronger the longer they fight at your side Parity Checks - Periodically restore 10% of your shields, even if you took damage recently Learn Corona - Unlock new core ability! Learn Battlecry - Unlock new core ability! Learn Phalanx - Unlock new core ability! Mud Stompers - Removes the movement speed penalty on creep Learn Irradiate Aura - Enemies around you will take every increasing damage Imperial Funds - Periodically receive a large amount of minerals Compound Plates - Adaptive Armor grants you additional armor per stack. You can learn this ability 3 times Nimble feet - Increases base movement speed Learn Demoralize - Unlock new core ability Learn Retribution Field - Auto-attacks have a chance to release a lightning field, damaging enermies around you Medic Nanites - Heal slowly over time, even while in combat Support Reactor - Improves all regeneration (shield regen - life regen - energy regen) Midnight - Greatly reduces Corona cooldown and slightly increases Retribution proc chance Ballistic Foam - Each stack of adaptive Armor grants a small bonus to life regeneration Heavy Body Armor - One-time big armor upgrade Pro Life Kit Delta - Increases shields, life and energy maximum Adaptive Shields - Adaptive Armor grants +1 shield armor per stack Wolf Pack - Increases the effectiveness of Inspire and the base damage of Retribution Scout - Grants a large bonus to vision range Dusk Wings - An elite Banshee will periodically fight by your side Sonic Reflection - Demoralize reduces enemy armor Improved Parity Checks - Reduces the time between Parity Checks Vitality Kit X - Increases maximum life by an absurd amount Improved Silos - Reduces build time and mineral cost for nukes. You can learn this Talent 2 times Attack Formations - Inspired units deal significantly more damage with all attacks and abilities Improved Shield Generators - Heavy improvements on every aspect of your shields Pro Life Kit Alpha - Increase maximum life and life regeneration rate (life regen - life max) Dawn Bringer - Increases the number of beams fired by Corona S.H.A.R.D. Generator - Chance to massacre to permanently increase shield armor DSL Class Toxins - Irradiate deals insane bonus vs Heroic Demolition Expert - Auto-attacks deal bonus damage vs Structures Call in the fleet - Reduces the time in between Battlecruiser deployment for all players and linked Talents Field Medic - Greatly increase life regeneration Vice Admiral - Grants a high chance to deploy two Battlecruisers instead of one Phalanx™ Shield Regenerator - Greatly increases shield armor and boosts shield max to top (shield armor - shield max Megaman - Increases the range or Inspire and Irradiate. Also improves Inpire's effectiveness slightly Defending Roar - Improves Demoralize's spell-damage penalty and Demoralize lasts forever Nemesis Module - Bonus energy and shield regeneration rate while on creep Pro Lite Kite Beta - Increase maximum life and reduces shield recharge delay (shield delay - life max) Pro Life Kit Echelon - Increases max life and shield regen and reduces shield regen delay (life max - shield regen - shield delay) Mechanized Squad Support - Heavy assault walkers will periodically be deployed at your base and attack the enemy Dual Armor - Increase both armor and shield armor by a moderate amount My life for Aiur! - Grants a large bonus to shield armor and a small bonus to regular armor (shield armor - armor) Vitality Kit III - Grants a moderate flat life bonus (life max) KBW Class Toxins - Irradiate deals insane bonus damage vs Psionic Nuclear Winter - Permanently reduces Nuke mineral cost after earning a Massacre Bonus Aspect of the Cheetah - Increases movement speed and sight radius. You can learn this Talent 3 times (movement speed - vision) Surge - Grants a small boost to maximum life, maximum energy and energy regeneration (energy max - energy regen - life max) Vitality Kite MKII - Grants a large flat bonus to maximum life (life max) Elite Support Drops - Elite mercenary reinforcements will periodically drop near your location Survival Kit - Increases life regen, shield regen and energy max (life regen - shield regen - energy max) Weapons Cache - Anyone picking up Power Cubes permanently increases your auto-attack damage Impenetrable Armor - Wear the latest shit on the front lines and get a large boost to armor (armor) Massive Blast - Nukes deal their full damage in the whole area Radical Restructuring - Nukes deal bonus damage vs Structures. You can learn this Talent 2 times Boss Killer - Greatly increases auto-attack damage against bosses, hatcheries, lairs ans hives Surgical Bombs - Partially refunds Nukes which deal a lot of damage and no friendly fire Gladiator - Sometimes gain a small permanent bonus to life after earning a Massacre bonus (massacre - life max) Endurance - Life and shield regenerate at a much higher rate (life regen - shield regen) Battle Hardened - Large bonus to maximum health and shield for you and your summoned units (life max - shield max) Unity - Grants a percentage bonus to life and shields for all friendly players (CP upgrade - life max) Emergency Kit - When health drops low, immediately restore a large portion, 60 seconds cooldown Moxie Cache - Anyone picking up Power Cubes permanently increases your shield armor and energy maximum (Power Cube - Shield armor - energy max) Power Crystals - Provides a large boost to energy regeneration (energy regen) Bio Implants - Regenerate life much quicker at the cost of reduced max energy (life regen - energy max) Widow Mines Drop - Periodically drops 5 Widow Mines which can be controlled by you for 10 minutes Bolstering Shout - Increases the life bonus of Battlecry Booster Cache - Anyone picking up Power Cubes permanently increases your life maximum (Power Cube - life max) Highpower Capacitors - Grants a large bonus to energy regen and shield maximum (energy regen - shield max) Aspect of the Bear - Increases maximum life and Retribution deals bonus damage vs heroic enemies (life max - weapon) Aftermath - Massacre bonuses restore a percentage of your energy scaling with kills Survivor - Massacre bonuses have a chance to permanently increase life regeneration Electrostatic Fallout - Nukes deal bonus damage vs Psionic and Heroic Infantry Support Drops - Infantry reinforcements will periodically drops near your location Heightened Senses - Battlecry increases spell-damage Support Drop Auto-Turret - Periodically call down an Auto-Turret near your location Field Research - Massacre has chance to permanently increase energy regen and energy max (massacre - energy max - energy regen) Weapons of Mass Destruction - You have up to 2 nukes stored and reduces nuke mineral cost Reinforced Exoskeleton - Greatly improves life and armor by a flat amount (armor - life max) Modular Shields - Sometimes gain a permanent bonus to shields after earning a Massacre Bonus (massacre - shield max) Rainmaker - Launching a nuke has a chance to deploy Battlecruiser support Fried Zergling - Retribution deals insane bonus damage vs light enemies Significant Talents and Explanation Compound plates are very important for the predator. You can learn compound plates 3 times. With only one time compound plates you remain somewhat squishy. So you need to have this talent at least twice to be able to sustain more damage. I quote: "Adaptive Armor grants you additional armor per stack". The question that remains are these: 1) how much additional armor per stack? 2) how much is a stack? Without these answers it remains very vague. The other very important talent I always want it Adaptive Shields, it states: "Adaptive Armor grants +1 shield armor per stack". Question again: how much is a stack? Ballistic Foam is another notable one: "Each stack of adaptive Armor grants a small bonus to life regeneration". Question: how much is a stack of adaptive armor? The questions are addressed below in an answer from Thenarden: Adaptive armor is a buff that can stack on the hero, meaning multiple "versions" or instances of the buff at the same time. And each of these instances keeps its own duration (8 sec). This means that the first time your hero gets hit, he gets the buff with 8 second duration (1st stack). After this 8 seconds, the buff would disappear. BUT: If you get hit again in this time, a counter is increased (now 2 stacks). 8 secs after the first hit, the counter is decreased. And 8 seconds after the second hit, the buff is removed. The default maximum stack count for adaptive armor is 15 (and I don't know wether that is changed somewhere somehow) So if you get hit 15x in a period of 8secs, you have 15 stacks of adaptive armor. Same rules from above applying; 8sec after first hit, the counter is decreased.(edited) So much for how stacks work. Each instance of the buff has certain effects. The base (not upgraded by talents) effect is a Life Armor Bonus of 1. So each time you get hit, you have 1 bonus armor for 8 seconds, up to 15 bonus. Each Compound plates talent you learn increases this bonus by 1. So with 1x Compound plates, you get +2 bonus armor per buff instance (=stack) up to +30 bonus, with 2x Compound plates you get +3 up to +45 and so on. Adaptive Shields grants a similar bonus on shield armor. So again, each buff instance gives +1 shield armor, up to +15 and with Ballistic Foam, you get a life regeneration bonus per talent and buff instance on your hero (can't give exact value, since I don't know how "Vial Regeneration Bonus Scaled" actually works). Mastery pick order Order 1 # With perk caxw for a speed run, you first take lightweight and either booming voice OR Sungod for more damage. # Depending which mastery you took the first, the second will be either sungod or booming voice. The issue at hand is that predator needs to unlock ASAP for he can take unstoppable force. Please note that you already have weapons, because of the perk you chose # Adaptive armor so you can tank a bit more. # You wait for unlock and don't take at level 30, so you can take Unstoppable force so you can buffs units around you. # Either shadow stalker, so you can blink or Block mastery # Same as 5. # Immovable object next. Please be aware that this only holds for a speedgame where Dune release general within the first 7 minutes. Order 2 # No speedrun. Perk: caxy First again lightweight and shadow stalker mastery for blink. # Adaptive Armor. Allows to tank spine crawlers for a reasonable amount of time and thus push quicker. Also, it is a pre-requisite for the Block mastery. # Either block OR Sungod for more damage, in addition you can see ravagers and the team will greatly benefit from this as well. # Block mastery or Sungod, or if you unlocked already Unstoppable force. # Unstoppable Force so you can buff or Block. # Take Sungod now if you didn't take it already. # Immovable object so phalanx will really help you take tremendous punishment. # Weapons or Immovable, depending what you took. The choices above reflect the opinion of Mipam who got these ideas from GhostDrag, one of the best players, if not the best (Tankz?) in the game. Ghost was the first to really understand the benefits from the predator better even though Mipam played predator a lot longer, but really didn't use the predator even close to it's full capabilities. Thanks to Ghostdrag he now understands this. Image, simply taking the angry or elite predator without moving. Getting the massnukes and simply stand and wait while the general is pounding you at the elite base, the brutas all come and they all die due to the mass nukes while predator simply dances around, not affected by the nukes or fireballs from the brutas. Immovable Object. Don't take it and wasn't unhappy about it. By the end stage you will be tanky enough to face tank almost everything, with exception of final wave Ultras and Queens (if not under Odin shields). Kiting works fine though, as you are still taking a lot of time to kill. Iron Man. Same arguments as for Immovable object. Energy. By this point you shouldn't have any problems with energy/ * Order 3 (Nuke!) by Partisan, borrowed the idea from Tankz Start with nuke mastery and Mercenary talent. Use nukes early to push faster. Use them wisely though. My main goal with this mastery is to chain-nuke Leviathan's base early, when he just spawns. To achieve this, Nuke mastery has to be taken instead of some other mastery early. I haven't found a better than Sun God. Also, blast range increase slightly helps with clean-up speed and getting more experience. I take Sun God after Unstoppable Force before the Weapons. Sun God and Weapons provide similar dps boost, but Weapons costs money. If you have enough bank to chain-nuke, it doesn't matter much.